Neil Jordan: War and Peace – and Artificial Intelligence

A fascinating advance currently underway in the field of artificial intelligence is the development of models to assist with peace negotiations. In collaboration with the White House, a think tank in Washington has been developing a simulator that generates potential peace-agreements to end the war in Ukraine, and also scores the (...)

Philip Booth: Pope Francis, Fraternity and Globalisation

This is a repost of an appreciation of Pope Francis by CEME Fellow, Professor Philip Booth, first published on the Catholic Social Teaching blog of St Mary’s University. We thought it would be of interest to CEME readers, but reposting does not mean endorsement of every point. In the coverage of (...)

Peter Selby: Inflation is About More Than Money: Economics, Politics and the Social Fabric’ by Brian Griffiths

Reproduced with permission of Church Times   ‘INFLATION is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon’, says the title of chapter 7; at the same time, it is, as the book’s title affirms, ‘about more than money’. Those are the two pegs on which the argument of this courteously erudite tract hangs. (...)

Neil Jordan: (How) Does Artificial Intelligence Think? (What) Does it Know?

A recent article reports on work by researchers at Anthropic, the AI lab that developed a ‘reasoning’ AI model, and their ability to look into the digital brains of large language models. Investigating what happens in a neural network as an AI model ‘thinks’, they uncovered some unexpected complexity that (...)

Philip Booth: Tariffs are No Solution to a Non-Existent Problem

President Trump has certainly brought the issue to the fore with a bang. Perhaps his attempts at protectionism will show the error in the thinking of the anti-globalists in our own country. We don’t get many controlled experiments in economics. Perhaps this will be one. The anti-globalisation trend, which is (...)

Neil Jordan: Second Homes and the Council Tax Premium – Solution or Sumptuary Law?

From April 1st this year, local authorities in England have the power, under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, to charge a Council Tax Premium of 100% on second homes. Many councils have availed themselves of the opportunity. The Justification The move to charge a premium is driven by (...)

Andrei Rogobete: In Defence of Cash ISAs

Recent articles in the financial news (such as this one by the Telegraph) have been hastily calling for the abolition of Cash ISAs, claiming absurdities such as, ‘cash savers don’t deserve tax breaks’. Here are a few reasons why they may be mistaken and why their approach is saliently unwise: (...)

Neil Jordan: The Mystery Box – Gambling, The Experience Economy or Disordered Consumption?

Of growing popularity at present is the phenomenon of the ‘mystery box’: a box or case purchased – usually from an online provider – that contains various ‘unknown’ objects. A fairly typical example would cost somewhere in the region of £90 and will be described by the seller as either (...)

Andrei Rogobete: Abraham Kuyper’s Theology of Work & Technology

Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920), the Dutch theologian, philosopher, and statesman, is renowned for his comprehensive vision of Christian engagement in the world, especially in the realms of politics, education, and culture. As one of the founding tenants of Dutch Neo-Calvinism, Kuyper’s theology emphasises the sovereignty of God over every aspect of (...)

Neil Jordan: Will AI Get You a Job? Applications and Individuals

Reports abound on the potential of artificial intelligence to transform workplaces, whether in its capacity to process vast quantities of data – data that would require weeks of careful analysis on the part of human beings – in a matter of hours, or its ability to deal with routine tasks, (...)

Don’t Let Hazy Environmental Thinking Cloud Pragmatic Solutions  

By John Kroencke

As part of the new government’s effort to raise the number of houses built and spur economic growth, Labour ministers plan to allow homebuilders to receive planning permission for projects currently impacted by nutrient neutrality rules that require new construction in areas with high levels of nutrients in waterways to (...)